Back from tennis. So I put the whole bottle in the blender with 2 habaneros. The resulting product has some bounce to the ounce. It's going on some jerk chicken and then into the oven. We'll know the results in an hour.

Well.........?

--------------"Rich is just mad because he thought all titties had fur on them until last week when a shorn transvestite ruined his childhood dreams by jumping out of a spider man cake and man boobing him in the face lips." - Erasmus

I did get to try a nice beer at the Bonnaroo Music festival last week. It's a Vermont brew called Magic Hat. My daughter, who goes to school in Vermont, had been telling me about it, but it's not distributed here in Missouri. So I grabbed the chance at the beer table at the festival. Very, very, nice and refreshing.

--------------Those who know the truth are not equal to those who love it-- Confucius

Last weekend I had pretty good luck with a chicken tikka masala recipe on this product. The other ingredients aside from the paste were a quarter cup of yogurt, crushed tomatoes, and an onion. I followed the recipe VERY closely and I quite liked how it came out. My wife said it tasted just like how a restaurant would make it. Not particularly hot, though -- what Patak's calls 'medium', I'd call 'mild'.

Anyway, for reasons that I can't really explain, I am going to attempt the following recipe with six chicken thighs tonight:

Fry the onions for a while. Then add ginger-garlic paste and fry a little longer.Make a paste out of Coriander, red chillies, pepper powder, tomato and fried onions (from step 1 ).Take a wok and put in the paste and heat well. Keep stirring until paste thickens and the raw smell disappears.Add some water, mutton or chicken pieces along with potatoes and cook for 20 minutes.If it is mutton you will have to pressure cook for 3-4 whistles. Stir once in a while and add water if you require a little extra gravy.Happy cooking.

I don't have any red chilis, so I'm either going to use two habaneros, or some Kohinoor brand red chili paste I got from my favorite Indian grocery.

I'm making a separate meal (hamburgers) for my wife and daughter so they don't have to suffer as I have chosen to suffer.

I've seen conflicting reports as to whether phaal is 'authentic'. Some say Indian restauranteurs in England invented it to punish boorish drunken white guys who show up at 11pm and ask for 'the hottest thing you've got'. Others say it's a genuine recipe for fish curry cooked in Bangladesh.

I'll report back if I live. If I die, you can blame Louis.

--------------"Rich is just mad because he thought all titties had fur on them until last week when a shorn transvestite ruined his childhood dreams by jumping out of a spider man cake and man boobing him in the face lips." - Erasmus

I believe Phaal is about as Indian as Chicken Tikka Masala (invented in Glasgow no matter WHAT the people from Birmingham say), since I've seen a variety of things mentione as being "traditional" although the name might be real, the sheer pointlessness of the sauce is probably not.

--------------I'm not the fastest or the baddest or the fatest.

You NEVER seem to address the fact that the grand majority of people supporting Darwinism in these on line forums and blogs are atheists. That doesn't seem to bother you guys in the least. - FtK

I believe Phaal is about as Indian as Chicken Tikka Masala (invented in Glasgow no matter WHAT the people from Birmingham say), since I've seen a variety of things mentione as being "traditional" although the name might be real, the sheer pointlessness of the sauce is probably not.

I think it's pretty much indisputable that Tikka Masala is the Chop Suey of Indian food. Invented by Asians, yes, but far far away from Asia.

As for Patak's I quite like this one. I'd like to try their Jalfrezi paste, but I haven't been able to find it yet.

Larich makes some interestingly bizarre Sri Lankan pastes, tho they don't seem to have their own website.

--------------"Rich is just mad because he thought all titties had fur on them until last week when a shorn transvestite ruined his childhood dreams by jumping out of a spider man cake and man boobing him in the face lips." - Erasmus

--------------"Rich is just mad because he thought all titties had fur on them until last week when a shorn transvestite ruined his childhood dreams by jumping out of a spider man cake and man boobing him in the face lips." - Erasmus

For what it is worth, I tried this recipe for Tinga over the weekend. It had a great flavor with just the right amount of heat (for me). Fire-eaters could probably spice it up even with a few more chipotles or some cayenne.

--------------It's natural to be curious about our world, but the scientific method is just one theory about how to best understand it. We live in a democracy, which means we should treat every theory equally. - Steven Colbert, I Am America (and So Can You!)

Never really tried their curry paste, but I'd be willing to chuck it in any curry I do.

I've never heard of Larich...I don't think I've seen their stuff on sale over here.

I mentioned their stuff on this thread a week or two ago. It's imported from Sri Lanka. Sinhalese curries seem to be VERY different from Indian ones. Their 'Red Hot Curry Paste' is fun. I discussed my experiment with it here.

Better get cooking, it's after 6pm here.

--------------"Rich is just mad because he thought all titties had fur on them until last week when a shorn transvestite ruined his childhood dreams by jumping out of a spider man cake and man boobing him in the face lips." - Erasmus

I dont think there are ANY Sri Lankan restaurants in the Bay Area, tho there are a handful of Nepalese ones. They're often run by Tibetan refugees from Nepal, so they often combine Tibetan and Nepalese food. But I haven't had it often enough to make generalizations about it.

Korean is maybe my favorite cuisine, tho Pakistani is close behind. Try Burmese, if you can find one.

I'm all hungry now! Gotta stop procrastinating and get started!

--------------"Rich is just mad because he thought all titties had fur on them until last week when a shorn transvestite ruined his childhood dreams by jumping out of a spider man cake and man boobing him in the face lips." - Erasmus

Well, there's a few "asian" restaurants/takeaways in Aberystwyth, which is handy, and theres a Nepalese restaurant/takeaway in Nuneaton. In fact, I'm getting food from there to celebrate my birthday on Friday. Christ.

--------------I'm not the fastest or the baddest or the fatest.

You NEVER seem to address the fact that the grand majority of people supporting Darwinism in these on line forums and blogs are atheists. That doesn't seem to bother you guys in the least. - FtK

I used too much water, I think. The sauce was a little too loose and globby. It tasted good, though. The oyster sauce, which I'd never known of until tonight, was the perfect flavor. Next time I'm going to crank the heat up, though. Probably by adding a habanero, though all this talk of indian food and red chilies, has me thinking I should go with those. But is red chili the name for them, or is there a more specific name I should look for in the grocery store?

I used too much water, I think. The sauce was a little too loose and globby. It tasted good, though. The oyster sauce, which I'd never known of until tonight, was the perfect flavor. Next time I'm going to crank the heat up, though. Probably by adding a habanero, though all this talk of indian food and red chilies, has me thinking I should go with those. But is red chili the name for them, or is there a more specific name I should look for in the grocery store?

Depends on the store. If it's a fairly comercial place (I know they all are, but you know what I mean) red will probably be enough, but if you want a specific heat, or are going to a proper asian/indian store, then you may have to look up names. I know of a few, depends on how hot you want them to be.

--------------I'm not the fastest or the baddest or the fatest.

You NEVER seem to address the fact that the grand majority of people supporting Darwinism in these on line forums and blogs are atheists. That doesn't seem to bother you guys in the least. - FtK

I go through periods of being either upper middle class or borderline-homeless poor, depending on what job I have at the moment. Right now I'm pretty far on the poor end. So I often weigh my food purchases by the price-per-pound at Food Lion. In terms of premade, heat-and-eat vittles, it's hard to beat the Food Lion brand pizzas. They're the most mediocre pizzas you'll ever eat, but at ~$1.30/lb they're pretty damn cheap. Anybody have any suggestions for very cheap, yet edible, meals?

I go through periods of being either upper middle class or borderline-homeless poor, depending on what job I have at the moment. Right now I'm pretty far on the poor end. So I often weigh my food purchases by the price-per-pound at Food Lion. In terms of premade, heat-and-eat vittles, it's hard to beat the Food Lion brand pizzas. They're the most mediocre pizzas you'll ever eat, but at ~$1.30/lb they're pretty damn cheap. Anybody have any suggestions for very cheap, yet edible, meals?

Well, when I was a grad student I made too little money to even file income taxes, and we frankly ate a lot of rice and beans. It's not that expensive to add a little chicken to that. Mexican food in general is a really good bet on a poverty budget.

If you have a bit more time, fried rice is easy and yummy, and you can make a massive batch of it in 30~40 minutes.

It's not hard to eat decently on meager amounts of money, if you know what you're doing. People who think that being poor means you have to eat kraft mac & cheese all the time lack any imagination.

--------------"Rich is just mad because he thought all titties had fur on them until last week when a shorn transvestite ruined his childhood dreams by jumping out of a spider man cake and man boobing him in the face lips." - Erasmus

I lived on that stuff as an undergrad, and the cost hasn't significantly increased in 20 years.

if you live near the coast and have a commercial fishing fleet nearby, you can often get great deals on fish if you buy straight from the docks at the END of the day, just before they give up to go home.

used to commonly get fresh king salmon (whole) for a buck a pound. Flounder and Rockfish even cheaper.

Okay, I'm going to have to redo that phaal recipe. Consider that a test run. I'll try again in a week or two.

It was nice 'n hot and had a good flavor, but (a) it should have been hotter and (b) I put WAY too much tomato in it. I put in a third of a big can of crushed tomatoes in it (seemed like a good idea at the time), and I only put in one habanero 'cuz I was too timid. Dammit.

Next time: 3 tablespoons of the red chili paste, 2 habaneros, and VERY little tomato.

--------------"Rich is just mad because he thought all titties had fur on them until last week when a shorn transvestite ruined his childhood dreams by jumping out of a spider man cake and man boobing him in the face lips." - Erasmus

if the idea is to get tomato flavor without the "mush", maybe try adding sundried tomato strips instead?

I use those in a lot of sauces where i don't want the added crap that comes with fresh or canned tomatoes.

Actually, the problem is that the tomato taste overpowered everything else in it, including all the spices. It tasted too tomatoey.

I like sundried tomatoes a lot, too, like in pasta sauce & pizza. But I dunno if they'd quite work in a quasi-curry.

--------------"Rich is just mad because he thought all titties had fur on them until last week when a shorn transvestite ruined his childhood dreams by jumping out of a spider man cake and man boobing him in the face lips." - Erasmus